On rare cases, 2 out of 100 to be exact, urinary tract infection sometimes leads to vesicoureteral reflux (VUR), a very rare illness wherein the flow of urine becomes abnormal.

In VUR, instead of the usual movement of the urine coming from the kidney into the ureters and then to the bladder, the action is reversed.

This condition may either be congenital (present even before birth) through prenatal hydronephrosis or the unusual widening of the uterers, or as acute pyelonephritis, a type of urinary tract infection wherein the kidneys are gravely damaged.

How do you know if you are affected with vesicoureteral reflux (VUR)? Symptoms like painful urination (scientifically called renal colic/flank pain) are not attributed to vesicoureteral reflux.

Some symptoms of VUR, particularly among children, include pyrexia, repeated urination, maladorous urine, dysuria. These symptoms, however, usually occur when there is a previous infection in the urinary tract before VUR occurrence.

The foremost symptom of vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) is recurrent urine infection. Urine infections, if not treated at early phase, could lead to damage on the kidneys. If it continues untreated, it could lead to high blood pressure or even total shutdown of kidneys.

There are two kinds of treatment for vesicoureteral reflux (VUR), the medical and surgical methods. Medical treatment is more recommended, but on very severe cases, surgical mode is considered.

There are five stages of VUR. For those patients with Grade I-III, children and adult alike, medical treatment is used. On Grade IV VUR patients, medical treatment is first tried to test if it will be treated, especially on the children and infants.

If it does not work, surgery may be an option. However, on the Grade V VUR patients, only the infants are being given medical treatment as trial. For non-infant patients, surgery is the only cure they can undergo.